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This interview realized by Michael Ernest Sweet has been previously published on the book Made in Italy.

Alex, your work is fresh, innovative, and edgy. I love it. It not only reminds me of my own approach to photography, but, perhaps more importantly, to some of the very best of the masters – Daido Moriyama, William Klein and Mark Cohen, for example. This comparison should not be trivialized in the contemporary photographic milieu where too much of what we are seeing today is unworthy of any such comparison. The field is cluttered with junk photography from techies who know more about Google analytics than they do about photographic composition, ISO, or focal lengths. Through all that clutter your work stands out because it is authentic, it’s skillful – it’s art in the truest sense. Kudos!

I’m delighted to be able to write the interview for this book, as it will give me the opportunity to dig into your mind a little – to uncover some of the genius that creates this stunning photography. Let’s begin!

Michael Sweet: Alex, why photography? How did you get into this medium in the first place?

Alex Coghe: I consider photography the most powerful vehicle of emotion and messages. Certainly there are many other arts that are able to do this, music for example…but the speed of communication and the duration in time will always be in favor of a photograph. If I think about why I have chosen this medium of expression, I would answer because photography allows me to search for the unknown. I come from poetry that is also about the exploration of ourselves, an impulse completely selfish, and if you think about it photography is also a solitary act. Although it may seem presumptuous I make photography essentially for myself, to explore the world as my eyes see it. It is a complex process where I explore the world to explore myself, and there is a sort of continuous exchange between what my eyes see and what my mood and my state of mind feels. The result of this generates another world where my experience emerges becoming one with the world represented… Photography for me is a reaction to what I have before my eyes.